Weekly Roundup: One small step on the road to free, safe, and legal abortion in Ireland

Welcome to another Weekly Roundup, where each week our MediaWatch team highlights how abortion is discussed in the media at home and abroad. This week has been a monumental one for abortion rights in Ireland, and the extensive media coverage reflects that.

But we also had a blog post from a pro-choice Catholic to her fellow Catholics, advocating for choice. We had a piece on RH Reality Check from Magdalena Lopez of Catholics for Choice comparing the Irish struggle for reproductive rights to the situation in her home country of the Philippines, where they fought against Catholic bishops for 15 years – and won.

And from the US, we had rabbi Aaron Alexander reminding us that enshrining Catholic beliefs in law ignores the beliefs held by others.

All eyes were on two key figures in the debate, though: Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD and Fine Gael deputy Lucinda Creighton. Creighton spent the week fighting for the suicide clause to be removed from the bill, clashing with her party’s and the Government’s leader. The Taoiseach said that removing the clause would be “unconstitutional”, while perinatal psychiatrist Dr Anthony McCarthy advised that the measures suggested by Creighton to fast-track the assessment of women’s mental health in this situation were impractical and unrealistic.

The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill is not the end for the ARC, it is just the beginning. The number of women in Ireland who have had an abortion would fill the Aviva Stadium three times over, and this bill does not assist the vast majority of these women.

Doctors for Choice arranged for independent TD Catherine Murphy to visit the Liverpool Women’s National Trust Hospital – the biggest maternity hospital in Europe – to find out first-hand what thousands of Irish women have experienced when they travel for an abortion. She said these women have been met with compassion in the UK, highlighting the tragedy of not receiving the same from your own country.

A video from RHK Productions reminds us of the lies and disingenousness we have heard from those opposing pregnant women’s right to life in recent months, while our own Jan Ní Shuilleabháin documented what has now changed, 21 years on.

But this is not enough.

Emer O’Toole’s opinion piece in the Guardian sums up the Irish abortion debate in one disrespectful gesture from TD Tom Barry. This ‘lapgate’ incident with fellow TD Áine Collins sums up the farce and lack of empathy that was inherent throughout the debate and shows us that – while we have come far – this is just one small step in what will be a monumental journey.

We are now joined in the fight for free, safe and legal abortion in Ireland by the foundation of Wicklow Pro-Choice. Let us not grow complacent. Let the so-called ‘floodgates’ open.

The Abortion Rights Campaign will continue until abortion is free, safe and legal for women in Ireland. Please consider donating to the campaign and feel free to come along to our next open monthly meeting on July 15th in the Teacher’s Club, Dublin.